Council employees have been offered a ‘long overdue’ two-year pay increase starting next year.

Employees whose salaries start at £19,430 per annum will receive an uplift on 2% as of next April with a further 2% the following year.

Those on the lowest salaries will also receive increases, with unions suggesting these could be as much as 16% over the two years.

The offer also includes the introduction of a new national pay spine on 1 April 2019.

The offer, made by the National Employers, who negotiate pay on behalf of UK councils, will affect one million workers.

The Local Government Association (LGA) estimates the total increase to the national pay bill resulting from this offer will be 5.6% over two years.

The unions GMB, UNISON and Unite will now put the offer to their respective committees for consideration.

‘Council and school support staff are the lowest paid workers across our public services and are long overdue a wage rise above the 1% cap,’ said Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s head of local government.

‘The Government must now come up with the cash to fund local government properly so councils have the money to give their staff a wage increase that doesn’t put more services or jobs at risk.’

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, said: 'Local government workers provide an important and essential service to the public, but for years they have seen their pay held back by this Government in the name of austerity.

'Given the Tories’ harsh cuts to local authority budgets, it is vital that additional funding is provided to back up this pledge, to avoid simply placing extra burden on already over-strained budgets.'